Portable hand-held hair dryers with heated air outputs have been used extensively both by barbers and in beauty salons as well as by individuals in the home for many years. As the home market has increased in recent years, these appliances have developed primarily in two separate and distinct categories, the blower/dryers and the styler/dryers.
Blower/dryers are used primarily for drying the user's hair and provide a hot concentrated air flow. Such appliances typically have a cylindrical portion from which the hot air exits axially out one end thereof. The air outlet opening is relatively small and thus provides a high velocity concentrated air flow. With the high velocity air flow, the temperatures used in such blower/dryers can be extremely high without creating a risk of internal heat build-up by the heating elements and as such, the drying power of these devices is quite high. The most common blower/dryer configuration is the gun-type unit in which a handle portion extends downwardly at a right angle from the cylindrical body portion of the product. The motor and a centrifugal fan are positioned at the junction of the handle and body portion. Electrical heating elements are provided between the fan and the frontally located air outlet. Attachments such as a brush or comb cannot be used with such blower/dryers and, if brushing or combing is desired for styling, the consumer must use both hands, the blower being held in one and a brush or comb in the other. The gun-type configuration for a blower/dryer, however, is convenient to use and efficient if a second person is drying the actual user's hair, such as a professional hair stylist.
A styler/dryer appliance, on the other hand, is characterized by having various styling attachments, such as a brush or a comb, and typically has an elongated body with a head portion in which the hot air flow exits laterally therefrom. Thus, the appliance can be manipulated in the same fashion as is a common brush with one's hair being dried and styled as the user merely brushes or combs his or her hair. A typical construction of a styler/dryer incorporates a tangential fan within the head portion thereof with the heating elements being positioned between the fan and the lateral air outlet. Such a construction, additionally containing a water spray feature, is disclosed in the Churas et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,379. The air outlet contained in styler/dryers is of a larger area than that of the typical blower/dryer and consequently the air exits through this outlet at a lower velocity. This lower velocity and less concentrated air flow will not tend to adversely blow or scatter the user's hair as much as the high velocity air in the blower/dryer, thereby facilitating the styling operation.
The preferred and most efficient manner of preparing one's own hair would be to use a blower with its high temperature and concentrated air flow during the initial drying process and, after the hair has been partially dried, to use a styler/dryer to complete the drying and to properly style the user's hair. In view of these considerations, it would be advantageous to have a single portable hand-held product that would provide the functions and advantages of both a blower/dryer appliance as well as a styler/dryer appliance.